Episode 125: Reducing Your Toxic Load

doTERRA: Toxins can be found in the products that we use every day. Avoiding toxins can seem like an insurmountable challenge, but there are simple things you can do to reduce your toxic load.

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Today, we're excited to talk to Christine Perkins about reducing your toxic. Christine, thank you so much for sitting down with us today.

Christine Perkins: Thank you! I'm really glad to be here.

doTERRA: Now, toxic load might be a phrase that not everyone is familiar with. Can you tell us what does it mean when we refer to toxic load?

Internal Sources

Christine: Well, our toxic load comes from a couple of different sources—or many different sources. We have both internal processes, cells that break down and die that need to be eliminated. And those are toxic to us as well. So it's an internal process, and it's what our bodies are sort of designed to be able to eliminate and take care of.

There are hormones inside of our bodies that need to act and then be broken down. And if they aren't able to be eliminated, then they, too, can become a toxic load. So those are some things that are internal within us that can actually lead to an increased toxic load. But we're designed to handle that.

I think when we talk about toxic load, the more important thing that we're dealing with is the external sources. And those are the sources of the thousands of chemicals that have been created in the last hundred years. And most of them don't have a pathway out of our bodies. Our liver is very responsible for a lot of the detoxification process. The liver and the kidneys, the bowels, the lungs and the skin are all are what we would call detoxifying organs.

Unfortunately, though, these chemicals that have been created, they stockpile inside of us, and they don't really have a way to get out. These toxins accumulate in so many different ways. We breathe them in the air. We drink them in our water. We eat them in our food. We use them to clean our homes. And we use them to take care of our personal—they’re in our personal care products. And what we put on our skin gets absorbed into our bodies. We just have increased this burden on our systems. We're always detoxifying. Those five organs that I talked about are always working and always detoxifying. It's just that they're overloaded with the amount we're exposed to these days.

doTERRA: Now, you mentioned a few of the different ways we might be becoming exposed to these chemicals. Are there other main ways that I'm exposed to toxins in my everyday life?

Christine: No, really, those, in my opinion, are the most significant ways. There's air pollution that we can't control. And this is part of it as well. There are certain things that we can't control. I can't really make the outdoor air quality any better than it is where I live. So this is just a natural part of living that my body likely is—well, it's working hard to take care of it. But when we add all the things up together, that's where we start to feel that sense of a toxic burden onto our bodies.

But we also drink water in many cases that is not very clean, and it could be not—it's clean and free of bacteria because we put chlorine in the water. But the chlorine itself that we drink can be a toxic burden to our systems as well, because it's another chemical that we're drinking in. Even the simple things that we do, like breathing and drinking water and then consuming foods that are nonorganic and even to a certain extent, organic foods have chemicals on them because our world is full of these chemicals that have been created.

To a certain extent, there are things we can't control, and then we're exposed in ways that we can control, like some of us do have the disposable income that we can afford to put a reverse osmosis water filter into our homes, or we could afford to eat organic food, or we can choose to take in—to put on different cosmetic products or things like that. So some of us have some choices we can actually make. And other times we don't have a choice. We are just—it's the world we live in.

And I don't want to make anybody live in a bubble. I want everyone to live in this wonderful world that we have. Experience all the amazing cultures and food. And hopefully one day when travel is a big thing in our lives again that we can travel the world and experience these things again. It's not about being afraid, and it's not about trying to control your world so much. But because of this burden, we have an obligation if we want to live a healthy life, that we need to work on these detoxification processes. We need to help our bodies to eliminate these toxic chemicals more than we ever have in our life.

doTERRA: And how does this toxic burden or this toxic load affect me? How would I recognize the effects?

Christine: Well, I think they're often responsible for—they're responsible for a lot of vague symptoms. You know, there are there are examples of people that get exposed to heavy metals, let's say, and they would really notice that they have symptoms that happen and they have some pretty significant diseases that occur that would be like a toxic exposure.

Lack of Energy

But in general, most of us are living in what I call a low grade state of ick. We sort of get up for the day, and we need our coffee to get going. And we get irritated by certain extra burdens at work or demands that are on us. We often hit the snooze button a lot of times when we're trying to get ourselves roused and out of bed. We're not living at our highest potential.

We're not living in that moment where we wake up in the morning and our eyes kind of pop open right before we get out of bed or rather, before the alarm goes off, and that we feel energized throughout the day without the need for stimulants, like caffeine or chocolate or sugar. We don't have that lightness of mood where everything is capable of coping with just about everything. And then we eat, and we kind of feel like maybe bloated and a little bit of indigestion. And so many of my patients these days have heartburn or that—like a reflex disease. So they eat, and they just feel kind of full and bloated and heavy.

And then we just don't have the energy. We drag ourselves to the gym, you know, at the end of the day, and we're trying to get a workout in, and many people feel run down and tired. These are all sort of vague. They're showing up with sort of these vague of not feeling their best and feeling kind of run down. And it is, it's like I call it, it's a low grade state of ick that we all kind of live in. That's kind of how most people would notice it.

Skin Issues

You might also see it in some skin. You know, again, we have to look at sort of—the organs of elimination are the liver and the bowels, the lungs, the skin, the kidneys. And I feel like in this the liver in the bowels kind of go together. We have these organs that are eliminating. And if any of those organs aren't working at their best, or they're bogged down, then we start to see symptoms.

So we might see symptoms in people’s skin. They may not have very clear skin. It might be kind of ashen or gray looking. They might not have that radiant kind of glow to them that would be indicative of good health. Their hair might be lackluster and not really shiny and bouncy and bright.

Indigestion

They might have, as I said, this indigestion. When the bowels and liver are overloaded, people will feel sometimes a pressure underneath their rib cages, and they feel like distended with their tummies when they eat.

Or maybe there's even pain for some people, like when they eat. And then we also have too, I also notice that some of my patients just feel puffy overall. Their rings don't kind of fit the way they used to, and their bodies are kind of holding water in order to buffer all of this toxic load that's in them.

Weight Gain

And then one of the final ways that we kind of see it happening is in weight gain. You know, our bodies are really, really clever and—maybe weight gain or it could even be the inability to lose weight. These toxic chemicals require a storage space. And our bodies are so clever, they're not going to put them in our brain, and they're not going to put them in our livers, in our hearts, in places that are really, really vital organs. They're going to tuck them away in the adipose, in the fat cells.

If the fat cells are serving a purpose, which is the storage purpose for these chemicals, sometimes the body can't lose weight. I've actually met patients on very, very restricted diets that are still gaining weight on very little calories per day. And that's simply because their body is holding on to so, so much of this toxic load.

doTERRA: Now, we've talked about all the bad that can happen when this toxic burden builds up in ways that we're exposed to that. Now, let's shift into more of the positive, what we can do. What lifestyle changes can I make to help reduce my toxic load?

Christine: Yeah, and I think this is this is a very—you make a really good point that it can sound really horrible. There was a book that I used to keep on my coffee table called Detoxify or Die. And my mother used to say to me, “That's the most depressing book. That shouldn't be on the coffee table.”

And I would say, “It's not depressing. You have a choice.” We have to learn ways to detoxify. And there are many, many things that we can do to offset this toxic load that we build up in our bodies.

We have to think about the priorities a little bit. We can live about four minutes without air. We can live about four days without water. And we can live about 40 days without food. And it's sort of important to clean up the things that we can have control of.

Indoor Air Quality

I can have control of my internal environment, my internal air quality. I might think about having an air purifier, and I also would definitely think about reducing the things that gas off in my internal environment, things like household cleaners that are very toxic and full of perfumes, which is another you know, these are all airborne and ways I can control my own personal indoor air quality, because we do spend about ten hours, often, eight to ten hours in our own indoor homes that we can take some charge there to clean that up. So we can use things like essential oils to replace our perfumes. We can use essential oils to diffuse instead of the actual synthetic air fresheners that exist, so we can control our air.

Purified Water

Then we have to look at our water. That's our next most important thing. It's really important that we drink water. That's a really important thing. We are 70 percent water, and we should be drinking water. So if we have the ability to drink filtered water, that's a really an amazing thing that we can be doing for our bodies.

I typically recommend that my patients use a reverse osmosis water, that they have a unit that gets installed into their homes. And they can add flavor to this because so many people drink pop. This is another really big toxic burden into our bodies. Let's drink purified water. And if we need some flavor or maybe we need some carbonation, let's do it ourselves. There are some excellent essential oils, even just like Lemon and Lime, that I love to add to my water. And so there are ways in which we can purify the air, the water with natural, not very expensive, simple means. We kind of have to go back to the basics.

Organic Food

And then when you look at food, you can live for 40 days without food. This is where actually where I find many people put a lot of their focus is on buying organic food, and yet they don't do anything about their air quality, and they don't do anything about their water sources and the fluids they're putting into their bodies. This is a very important step, eating organic, but it kind of comes third in the line of the most important things for us to do in order to truly get many of these chemicals out of us as well.

Cleanse

And then I also recommend that people do some form of a cleanse to lighten the burden on their bodies. So there's there are some ways, lifestyle, you know, you plan to do a cleanse. You can do the sweating and the exercise. You can drink and eat organic and clean up the air inside your house, eliminating some of the toxic products. Those are all really, really helpful ways to get those toxins out of you.

And then I do also recommend, you know, one of the things that I love with doTERRA is the Cleanse and Restore kit. I think this is a fantastic way, when I talk about doing a cleanse for patients. Everything comes in the box that you need, which is sometimes a hard part for people. It's daunting. How do I cleanse? What does a cleanse mean? What does it look like? And doTERRA’s made that really simple to do that 30-day cleanse. And the products inside both support cellular metabolism and cellular release of the toxins, but they also give you energy, and they replenish you. They nourish you and give you the vitamins and minerals that you your body actually requires to function normally. To me, that's an incredible way of handling the toxic burden once a year.

I often suggest people start it in January, not as a resolution because those don't tend to work very well. But sometime in January, after we've had our Christmas, and we've enjoyed ourselves. And it's also during this time with the pandemic going on, it's also a really great time—most of us find ourselves staying home more often, and we might not be out socializing as much. We might not find ourselves indulging in some of the toxins, like even drinking alcohol is a toxic load on us, and this season tends to be a season of celebration, and that usually gets included. Once that's done and complete, and we move into that new year, and we might be feeling still kind of a little run down at the end of the season, we can choose to do something like this 30-day cleanse.

doTERRA: All right, you mentioned a couple different doTERRA products and those lifestyle changes. Are there some other ones that I can incorporate into my life to help reduce some of the toxins that I'm exposed to?

Lemon Oil

Christine: Absolutely. If you even—just Lemon oil is a great addition to have in your water every morning when you wake up in a warm glass of water. So that's one simple thing you can do.

But I also love the Veráge^® line of products. We have to look at our personal health care products as well. And I believe doTERRA does an amazing job at keeping the toxic load out of those personal hygiene products, while giving us products that actually work and have beautiful, essential oils that are supportive. So I love the Immortelle blend and the Veráge line.

The natural deodorants that you have are effective and aren't going to add to toxic load. And I love the new On Guard toothpaste, the newly formulated On Guard toothpaste. And it's free of many of the chemicals that are in commercial toothpastes. So those are some of the other doTERRA products.

Household Cleaners

I might also consider, well, and I use it a lot in my house, is the On Guard cleaning concentrate. We use the On Guard cleaning concentrate for just about everything, and it eliminates the need for the more commercial chemical brands of cleaners. The more you can do with just baking soda water and lemon oil, which I also find is amazing for laundry.

We can't do without the laundry detergent in this household. We've got cleaner, safer products that we use that are everyday products that doTERRA is providing for us. You know, and I feel assured that I'm not getting the chemical burden that regular laundry detergent and fabric softeners and things like that contribute in our household. So we don't have that in our house. And I find that the products are just as effective and that I feel safe.

doTERRA: Well, all of those sound like incredible recommendations and really easy swaps to make to make sure that we're reducing that toxic exposure in our day-to-day life.

Make Changes One Step at a Time

Christine: And I think that that's sort of one of the key things is sometimes when I talk about this to people, they feel a little overwhelmed by the fact that “What am I supposed to do? I need to live in this world.” We don't have to change everything all at once. We've been living in this world for many years, some of us many, many decades. And we just have to change one thing out at a time.

When your laundry detergent is done and you want to try something new and effective, I absolutely love the On Guard laundry detergent. And as your toothpaste disappears, replace it with a new toothpaste. There are some things, like I said, your perfumes in particular are pretty toxic, and it's hard to get some people to—or colognes—some people to replace those.

The Power of Essential Oils

But the essential oils are beautiful, can be applied multiple times in the day, can be changed throughout the day, and can also be really supportive. They create a beautiful aroma, and at the same time, they're supportive, versus some of the other commercial products that people are using for their perfumes.

So those are sort of more urgent things. I would say that some of the more potent products would be your perfumes. And again, it's air fresheners, synthetic air fresheners that people are using in their homes and maybe even hairsprays and things like that that we're inhaling. Those chemicals go straight to our lungs.

It's really important to make some specific changes. But you can also take it as it comes, one thing at a time. Every month when something changes, you can try something new.

doTERRA Education

And I do believe that doTERRA’s education is one of the best that I find as well. While I speak about this—and I know that as I talk, I've mentioned lots of things—you can go find so much information through the doTERRA website. And even through the consultants and the Wellness Advocates that are going to help you understand better what's going on in your life and what changes need to be made on little steps instead of great big overhauls.

doTERRA: Absolutely. And I love that approach. Christine, it has been so great to talk to you today to learn a little bit more and understand how toxins are affecting us and what we can do to make sure we're living as healthy as possible.

Christine: Well, thank you for having me! I'm happy to share.

doTERRA: Thanks for joining us and congratulations on living a healthier lifestyle with essential oils. If you liked what you heard today, rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen. Also, if you want to try any of the products you learned about, go to doterra.com or find a Wellness Advocate near you to place an order today.